Brazil 2014: The Final

All of my previous posts during this World Cup have had a theme to them, but for this final post I am choosing to focus solely on the football and specifically tonight's final in Rio between Germany and Argentina, the third time that the two have faced in this fixture. It will be a huge event after all, and I for one can't wait for it to start!

Before the tournament started, my prediction was that Argentina would win the whole thing so I'll be supporting them tonight. They haven't played quite as I expected them to if I'm honest, but they just keep winning and that's all that you need to do. They have the potential to be extremely dangerous going forward with their superstar attackers, and hopefully they will show that against Germany.
Argentina's route to the final has seen them top their group ahead of Bosnia, Nigeria and Iran, before beating Switzerland 1-0 after extra time, Belgium 1-0 and then winning on penalties against Holland in the semi-final after a 0-0 draw. They certainly haven't been tearing teams apart, but with 3 clean sheets in a row it seems others are struggling to break them down. When you don't concede often and have Lionel Messi and co attacking for you,  there is no limit on how far you can go.

How will they line-up? Argentina usually play a 4-2-3-1 formation, as was mentioned in a previous post, so keep an eye out for that. They have changed their personnel throughout but for tonight I expect them to start with the following: Romero; Zabaleta, Garay, Demichelis, Rojo; Mascherano, Biglia; Di Maria, Messi, Lavezzi; Higuain.

The star for them you would expect will be Messi, arguably the best player in the world currently, and for him to lift the trophy as captain would be a fantastic moment. I think that if it did happen, it would be widely suggested that Messi is the greatest ever. The other man that I think will have a big impact on the result is Angel Di Maria, a player I rate very highly and who has had a phenomenal 12 months.

On to Germany, the team who have impressed me the most throughout. The development of the German team has been a lengthy process that is finally providing rewards. Their team look very strong all over and everyone seems to contribute rather than relying on 1 or 2 like other teams seem to. Just look at their semi final result winning 7-1 against a much fancied Brazil, and 4-0 win over Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal side to see how good they are!
Their route to the final has seen them qualify from their group with 7 points (Portugal, USA and Ghana the other teams), before defeating Algeria 2-1 after extra time, France 1-0 and then their magnificent 7-1 win against Brazil to get them into the final. They have scored a quite incredible 17 goals already which shows their attacking ability with goals coming from all over their team, with Miroslav Klose getting the headlines after breaking the record for goals scored in World Cup history with 16 now.

Germany tend to pack their midfield, and with the quality they have you can see why. I think they will play with the same team that started against Brazil in the last match, which would be a 4-5-1as follows: Neuer; Lahm, Hummels, Boateng, Howedes; Schweinsteiger, Khedira, Kroos; Muller, Klose, Ozil.

It is hard to say that Germany have a stand out player really. Toni Kroos and Thomas Muller have been very impressive in this tournament but I think that midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger is going to be very influential tonight if he plays. I will say that I think Argentina can attack the left back area as I feel Germany's left back Howedes (who I'm sure isn't actually a left back) is the weakest part of their team.

I'm predicting 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes, with Argentina going on to win it in extra time. Whatever happens the scenes tonight in Rio are going to be fantastic viewing and will live long in the memory of all.

New Introductions: Goal-Line Technology and Vanishing Spray

This year's tournament has seen the introduction of two new ideas into the International game; goal-line technology and a favourite of mine, vanishing spray. the idea behind them is to obviously assist the match referees deal with debatable issues and to prevent players from encroaching when defending free-kicks or moving the ball after the referee measures out 10 yards.

Vanishing spray, bring it to English football?

Goal-line technology has been a topic that has been discussed for years now as something that needs to be brought into the game somehow. In fact had it been in use during the last World Cup in South Africa, England would have rightfully been helped by it with Frank Lampard's 'goal', and who knows how the defeat to Germany would have panned out as a result. It has actually been used in England briefly in recent times, but not in a major tournament before now.
The system that is being used in Brazil is called GoalControl, a collection of 7 high-speed cameras per goal. These cameras track the flight of the ball and ultimately detect whether or not the the ball has crossed the line, before sending a message to the referee's watch, almost like a notification on your phone. It is a simple enough process in my eyes and has shown in this World Cup to be effective. In the group match between France and Honduras, a goal was given correctly to France via the use of GoalControl. The on screen video showed that the ball hadn't originally crossed the line after the shot hit the post, but after hitting the Honduras goalkeeper it did in fact go over the line.
in terms of being the future of football, I'm all for it personally. It doesn't take any time to make the decision (it takes less than a second to notify the referee) and helps to get the correct result. Other sports have successfully introduced technology; rugby, tennis and cricket for example, so why not gradually introduce it into professional standards of football on a greater scale than just major competitions?

The vanishing spray is a brilliant idea in my opinion. As someone who takes free-kicks for my teams when I play, I personally get frustrated when you can see opposition players coming closer than they should be and ultimately making it harder for you. So for me the idea is fantastic as it enables the free-kick to be as advantageous to you as it is meant to be.
The spray itself is made up mainly of water and butane gas in an aerosol can, with the butane gas expanding when the pressure is changed during the spraying action. The substance we see on the pitch is butane 'droplets' that are covered in water, with the butane eventually evaporating.
Future of football? Definitely. The idea is so simple that it is surprising that it hasn't been used in major tournaments before. It also is easy enough for the referee to have a can strapped to their waist for the game, and shouldn't be an expensive process. Reportedly the vanishing spray is going to be used in the Champions League next season, and is being considered by the Premier League, which just shows the impact that it has had.

I have been very impressed by these new introductions, they are certainly beneficial to matches and I think that many seem to have the same opinion. The next step that is needed is to integrate them into more competitions, not just the World Cup.

Is the heat in Brazil affecting the player's attitudes?

A lot of the pre-World Cup build up has been surrounding the issue of the heat and humidity and 'how are the England players going to deal with it'? In the rainforest surrounded area of Manaus in particular, where England played their opening game against Italy, it was around 33 degrees and 76% humidity, which seems crazy when you're used to English weather! Obviously these conditions make it harder for all of the teams, not just England, but how does it affect them and their attitudes during games?

The Arena Amazonia, Manaus

We have learnt in lectures at UOB that, when exercising in the heat, increased sweating and therefore increased fluid and electrolyte loss will occur. As a result, maintaining high performance levels should be harder, but the stars playing at the World Cup should be in better physical condition than your average performer like me, so the expectation would be that the likes of Rooney, Sturridge and co will deal with these difficulties better than I would. The most obvious way of doing so would be to maintain hydration during the matches at every opportunity.


It has already been seen that players are looking to get fluids back into their system at every chance they can during the matches, to the extent that players are taking the attitude of feigning injuries almost every time they get fouled. This may seem pathetic to some but believe me, having experienced the conditions of Manaus personally, you really do need to keep hydrated and take a breather when you can! By taking this attitude, they allow a chance for everyone to re-hydrate and rest for a moment, a very wise move in my opinion to be successful.


It hasn't all been good though in Brazil. We've seen players waving the imaginary card to the referee to try and get opposition players booked or sent off, which although it isn't cheating, is poor sportsmanship. I for one am glad that English players don't tend to take this approach and wish it was punished more than it is - a guaranteed yellow card for the player who does it perhaps? However, as bad as it is, it is quite a clever way of increasing the chances of winning. The idea is that if a team goes down to 10 men, they will have to work harder and will therefore tire quicker, making it easier to win.


So to answer the original question, we have seen changes in attitudes, but to be honest nothing more than what was expected before the tournament started, and I imagine it was expected by most.


Anything to win. A simple idea, but to me, there are some things that you just don't do purely for the spirit of the game. Looking after your body, I'm all for it, but play the game like it should be played!